The Anaheim Ducks wrapped up a three-game homestand on Sunday evening, when they hosted the visiting Chicago Blackhawks, before heading out on a five-game East Coast road trip.

The Ducks were coming off a bounce-back effort on Friday, winning 4-3 in a shootout over one of the hottest teams in the NHL, the Washington Capitals, two days removed from one of the worst losses in franchise history, when they lost 7-0 to the Utah Mammoth.

Game #29: Ducks vs. Blackhawks Gameday Preview (12/07/25)

Takeaways from the Ducks 4-3 Shootout Win over the Capitals

The Hawks were on their second game of a back-to-back and were coming off an embarrassing loss of their own on Saturday, when they were defeated by the Los Angeles Kings 6-0. They had only won two of their last nine games entering this one and were desperate to remain on the playoff bubble.

This was the third and final matchup between these two teams. The Hawks took the first game of the three-game series in overtime on Oct. 19, and battled back from a 3-0 lead to defeat the Ducks 5-3 a week ago in Chicago.

“It’s not that it’s more important than any other game, but those are things you think about,” Ducks forward Alex Killorn said after this game. “I thought we played really well. Even the first shift was great, and we kind of built off that momentum.”

Here’s how the Ducks lined up to start this game:

Kreider-Carlsson-Terry

Gauthier-McTavish-Sennecke

Johnston-Poehling-Granlund

Vatrano-Strome-Killorn

LaCombe-Trouba

Zellweger-Gudas

Mintyukov-Helleson

The Ducks turned back to Ville Husso in net with their starter and backup (Lukas Dostal and Petr Mrazek, respectively) both injured for 2-3 weeks. He saved 19 of the 20 shots he faced.

The Hawks handed the crease to Arvid Soderblom after starter Spencer Knight played all 60 minutes on Saturday. Soderblom stopped a whopping 46 of a whopping 53 shots on goal.

Game Notes

From the opening faceoff, this felt like a statement game for the Ducks. They were creative, tenacious, and detailed, controlling play for the full 60 minutes in their best single-game performance in at least a decade and one of their best in franchise history.

The Ducks registered 53 shots on goal, surrendering just 20 in regulation for the second straight game. At 5v5, they held a 72-26 (73.47%) shot attempt advantage, a 21-2 (91.3%) high-danger chance advantage, and a 4.07-0.55 (88%) expected goals advantage.

“I thought we did a really good job in the O-zone,” Killorn said. “We know they played last night, and it’s tough playing in the D-zone for the majority of the night. When you got guys like Leo turning up and back, it’s really hard on their D-men. We recovered a lot of the shots that we got from our D-men, so I really liked our O-zone play.”

Forecheck: The Blackhawks have a very talented, but very young D-corps. Taking away time and space on retrievals seemed like a focus, and it led to several goals and elongated cycles in the offensive zone. The F1 was able to influence puck carriers and not let them breathe before the secondary waves cut off their options up ice.

The forecheck worked with cohesion, as forwards were quick to recognize and cover for pinching defensemen, who chose their spots to engage well and kill plays before they could progress higher than the tops of the circles.

Zone Entry: The book has been out on the Ducks offensively for a while, after their hot start to the season. Now the Ducks are showing they can counter-adjust and attack in a variety of ways, both on the rush and on the cycle.

They found new ways to get the pucks to their best puck-transporters from their end, and after they gained entry into the offensive zone, those puck-carriers used a blend of deception and IQ to either skate pucks to the middle or pull up on the wall and find east/west seams to trailers with downhill speed.

Ross Johnston: It’s difficult to find a forward or two to highlight in this game, as they all, from Beckett Sennecke to Ryan Strome to Leo Carlsson, all displayed the strengths of their games and contributed to the team’s win in this game. However, Ross Johnston is a player who is finding new ways to impact a game aside from the purely physical aspects.

He’s cleverly finding teammates with secondary outlet passes on breakouts and keeping pucks alive in the offensive zone. In this game, he showed an unprecedented ability to not only bully his way to the front of the net, but when he arrived there, he was getting deft tips on point shots, forcing the opposing goaltender to make a difficult save and give up a rebound.

“I like that we wanted to have it for 60 minutes, and tonight we did,” Ducks head coach Joel Quenneville said after the game. “All positives, all over the place. Frankie scored, Killer scored, that line was good. Our four-line rotation was as good as it’s been in any game this year.

“I liked the balance on the backend. Husso got a nice W as well. It was a complete game in a lot of ways.

Jackson LaCombe: LaCombe’s play has been under the microscope this season, especially so because expectations are higher than they’ve ever been for him in his young career. He’s made a concerted effort to control the pace of play and possess pucks longer and with more poise. However, at times that’s led to a miscalculation of time and space, which in turn has led to the occasional turnover.

Though he only contributed an assist on the scoresheet, this may have been LaCombe’s best game of the season. He not only controlled play on the rush, a vintage LaCombe trait, but he consistently sent out misinformation to open skating lanes for himself and passing lanes to teammates. He broke up plays with a smart defensive stick and efficiently retrieved pucks before moving them north.

Where he most elevated his performance in this game was in his own end, against a cycle. He had been guilty, at times, of puck watching and disregarding his net-front assignments. That wasn’t the case in this game. He disrupted passes to the inner slot and boxed out opponents attempting to gain position from the corner or wall. He played like a $9 million defenseman tonight.

The Ducks will look to build on this performance and establish it as more of the norm than an anomaly, as they take to the road for a five-game road trip to the East Coast, starting with a matchup against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday.

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